Hidden Place
by Iskandri
Summary: This was a very unwelcome morning. Katara’s bleary eyes surveyed the campsite. Her eyes now confirmed what her heart had been dreading for the past 2 weeks. Now, it was Sokka missing.'Katara summons a hidden strength to find her family.
1. Snatched

**Hidden Place**

By: Orestes

_I am simply suggesting… we go to a Hidden Place_

-Bjork

Chapter 1

Katara woke up to a dreaded sound that morning. Silence. Every day for the past 2 years, Katara woke reluctantly either to the sound of Toph's barking orders, Appa's earth-shaking grunts, or, at the very least, her brother's obnoxious snoring. It was often all three. Even Aang, naturally a very quiet sleeper, would be skipping and leaping at the first sign of morning's rays, ready and eager to begin their next day of adventure.

What she wouldn't give for sliver of sound.

This was a very unwelcome morning. Katara's bleary eyes surveyed the campsite. Her eyes now confirmed what her heart had been dreading for the past 2 weeks. Now, it was Sokka missing. His sleeping furs nowhere to be seen, and as far as she could tell by first sight, every article he had been carrying with him, any evidence that Sokka had been sleeping beside her was gone. The ground beside her remained cold and solid, as though his warm body had not been protecting her from their unseen adversaries only a few hours before. Her very last refuge, her last link to home, her rock and strength, was gone. Snatched in the middle of the night.

The first to go was Toph, which was very unusual indeed. She was usually the one to detect any sort of ambush, long before it could be either seen or heard by the others. Katara assumed that was why she was the first to be taken. Without their efficient, sharp, but blind watchdog, the group was completely vulnerable in the dead of night, when all were asleep. Even Momo's keen ears couldn't pick up the precise silence of their ambushers, the ones that had been tracking them for little over a month, remaining hidden by the cover of night and silence - and wreaking havoc on Katara's nerves.

_How is this happening…_ she thought sadly, her heavy heart filled with nothing but worry and concern for her little family, before the panic set in.

Hot tears gathered at the corners of her eyes and she whipped her head back and forth, her braid snapping at her shoulders as she scanned the campsite and surrounding trees. She had been expecting this, sooner or later. But no amount of mental preparation could have primed her for the crushing terror of being truly deserted. She quickly gathered up her sleeping furs and her water skin, wrapping up her few belongings in her sack. With laboured breathing she scrambled to her feet, before marching into the woods, finally, terrifyingly alone.

xxxxxxxx

The second ones were Appa and Momo, together in one ambush. The group had fallen asleep around the fire, after a full two days of nervously planning their rescue mission for Toph. Her captors were so clearly the fire nation, with some sort of new methods to cover the sounds and vibrations of their footsteps. Aang thought they had been silently swinging through the trees, while Sokka fiercely maintained their use of his invented air balloon. Katara simply sat and stared into the fire, exhausted from her worry over their tough little companion. Over their year and a half spent together, Katara had really begun to think of her as a little sister. Not one that had needed her protection by any means, but now that she had been so easily snatched from under her nose, Katara felt the first pangs of guilt begin to set in.

_Why did they come for Toph? Why couldn't I..?_

Sleep overtook her, and her eyelids drooped heavily as the debate between Aang and Sokka also died down. Eventually the two had argued themselves to sleep.

It was Aang's bitter weeping that woke them the next morning. A large space of flattened grass was the only trace left of Appa. She never expected she would have missed Momo's chattering so much until the hopeless silence of her companions set in. The three trudged along on foot, Aang often lifting his head to bleakly search the skies for his beloved flying companion, his footsteps heavily dragging along the floor of the Earth Nation.

Katara glanced over at her burdened friend, trying to catch a glimpse of his former self in his deadened eyes. She was reminded of Aang's eyes after his shocking defeat by the Fire Lord Ozai.

Lifeless, empty, quiet. And the guilt... the overwhelming guilt. She doubted Aang would ever forgive himself for the lost opportunity of defeating the Fire Lord before the arrival of Sozin's comet. Katara's heart softened… he was still only a child.

Aang would never forgive himself. He carried so much on his shoulders. She, her brother, and the lost Toph, Appa and Momo had been his only foundations.

It came as little surprise when she and Sokka awoke 2 weeks later to find Aang had been snatched as well. Already having lost 3 of his closest, he wouldn't have had much fight in him.

xxxxxxx

Sokka was quick to blame himself. Being the greatest warrior from their quaint southern tribe, he prided himself on his guardian abilities. Needless to say, she was watched very closely by her big brother. He didn't take the loss very well. Neither of them did. The grief and powerlessness of the situation hung on them like a blanket. The siblings clung to each other for defence and sustenance. During the day, they gathered food together, and Sokka sharpened his boomerang, one eye on his task and the other keeping watch over his sister, practicing her bending near the streams of the forest. The forest that had once been their most trusted form of protection.

It had now become their enemy.

The plan was to leave the dense western forests of the earth kingdom as quickly as possible. Then...

Well, then the plan would come more easily to them. Escaping the thick, oppressive, menacing clutches of the forest was their best plan. Head directly south, then east, then…

Hope.

Hope that they would discover their friends, simply lost in the woods. Hope that their captors would give away some secret location, so they could plan an ambush. Hope that they weren't being followed, targeted as well.

Katara had thought that now they had Aang, she and her brother would have been left to their own devices. Aang was still, after all, the one with the biggest bounty on his head. They weren't being actively chased anymore, as far as they could tell, but they were all still enemies to the reigning Fire Nation.

Hiding in the forest, deserts and swamps, the slippery group had been fighting off Fire Nation forces underground, long after Aang's failure during the Day of Black Sun. Attempting to rally rebel forces, to ignite the spirits of the defeated, to turn them on their oppressors- they had been chased out by Fire Nation militia and locals alike- the ones who were at least happy that the war was dying down. They would rather live under the iron fist of corrupt, bullying and heavily taxing occupiers from the Fire Nation than risk their wrath again.

_Listen, they're everywhere, I can't speak with you. I have a family--_

_It's too dangerous; leave us alone to live in some sort of peace_

_Why can't you see you're unwelcome here?_

The avatar remained an enemy to many nowadays.


	2. Losing Cover

_Hidden Place_

**Chapter 2**

She had been watching them for 3 weeks, now. Katara was no vine-swinging hog monkey but it was times like these that she prided herself on her stealthiness.

"Nephew!" came a bellow from below. "Come and see this astounding collection of arrowheads- I think they may be Yuu-Yan, what a stunning addition they will make to my collection!"

It was not a well-earned pride, however. During the day, loud exclamations such as these were not uncommon. A jolly chuckle here, an amazed exclamation there, and the heavy treading of booted feet through a delicate forest made it now obvious to Katara that they were not in hiding. At night, the aging general's snores could have masked an army of angry Tophs barrelling through his camp.

One hundred meters above the forest clearing, perched on a thin branch and hidden by layers and layers of thick foliage, Katara's smirk faltered.

She had already started thinking of them impartially, as though they were fond memories and not her life's anchor. Catching herself at moments like these, when she would almost, _almost, _forget the reason she was still silent among the trees and not returning to her southern tribe is what would renew her ambition.

Focusing her sharpened eyes on the camp below her, she repeated her mantra; _information to find them, supplies to save them._

Uncomfortable sleeping arrangements were nothing new to her. Three years on the run with the World's Last Hope had quickly banished all memory of rich sleeping furs and the softness of freshly fallen snow. The forest was her home now, and a curved bough high above the forest floor would be her bed, if only until she could fulfil her mission.

Even so, there were nights when she would peer down at the Prince's travelling tent, jealous for even a thin layer of canvas to shield her from the dangers of the night. On those nights, she would switch her gaze to Yue, and pretend that her gentle glow spread over the sky as an enormous tent, made only to protect her when her motivation faltered so.

During the day, she hovered above the camp in her forest canopy, and listened. From official announcements to idle chatter, she knew by now that they were on a mission, just like she was. They were on a recovery mission, someone had been captured. Sozak? Suzon? The name was whispered, but he was fire nation and of some importance to have the Fire Prince, The Dragon of the West and- she noted by the official titles floating around, half of the royal guard.

At night, she would lower herself to the forest floor, _softly, gently, _quiet as death and slow as the moon's path, tiptoeing in the shadows to pick at leftover food and water. Soldiers did not waste much, even fat and healthy fire nation soldiers, so a rare leg of meat meant a long prayer to Tui and La.

Katara was now picking at some nuts from atop her post when her ears prickled to the stomping of men. Launching herself from her crouched position, she quickly scaled the branches to the very top of the tree, further, still- until she could hoist herself to the very point of it, and lift her upper half above the canopy.

A crew of foot soldiers were arriving from the West, and her ears, already trained to the predictable patterns of Fire Nation politics, knew they were delivering their weekly message to the re-instated General. She shifted, and slid one leg to the branch below her, delivered her weight to one side and slowly crawled down a few feet of branches. Aside from a few boisterous shouts from Iroh, most of the other sounds of the camp were muffled, including conversation.

She quickly twisted her braid and pulled out a thin piece of bone she had carved into a hair piece, pining it up. Removing her thick blue robes give herself a little more leg room, she strapped Sokka's small hunting knife to her upper thigh- her last token of him, the one he had given her the night before he was taken.

_As though he knew. As though it were a warning he heard, carried through the forest that night. _ Katara descended a little further in her wrappings, fighting down the lump that appeared anytime she thought of him, every time. She mechanically slung her water skin across her back and tightened. Focusing past the cloudiness in her head, she thought of her strategic placement.

'_They sure chose a tricky spot to set up camp this week' _she thought, worried at having missed any important news due to her growing fear of being caught by a firebender. The branches of the sprucemaples were thick, but started high up from the trunk, thus making it difficult for her to get low but remain hidden.

The march of the foot soldiers got louder, louder than normal. More soldiers, important news. She hesitated for a minute.

… _I can risk it._

She climbed further down- the men from the camp were all focused on the news-bearers. Further, still- lucky she had been living in trees so long, able to move and twist with only the slightest noise. Further, until she was at the branch just above the lowest to the ground, still ten feet above the heads of the soldiers.

She was able to steady her breathing and strengthen the tautness of her shaking wrists, but no amount of living so precariously close to the enemy had quelled the nervous tightening in her stomach or smoothed down the fine hairs that rose on her arms. She was close. She had not been so close when they were all awake, alert, and deadly.

She made out a large man amongst the troupe, puffing out his chest and hollering a listing of his titles much more loudly than was needed for the small clearing.

"News from the Fire Lord, General."

An impressively loud voice, a crier. He's been waiting to deliver this.

"Fire Lord Azula acknowledges your efforts in the search for the Fire Prince Ozak. She presents the following gifts and brings news of the triumph of the seas-"

Katara leant in- Prince? ... war at sea?

"A feast shall be held tonight in camp to celebrate Fire Lord Azula's decimation of the Water Tribes. Both Northern and Southern tribes have been annihilated by Agni's glorious flame…"

Suddenly, mysteriously, her head was underwater. A small part of her brain logically reminded her that this was not possible as she was still in the centre of the Earth Kingdom, not possible as she was in a tree above ground and not thousands of feet beneath the crushing pressure of the ocean.

But her lungs was compressed, her ears stuffed and her heart beating so loudly, so thunderously –

It was the pulse of the earth pounding through her, her body could not support it-

_Decimated…dead_

Her legs crumpled and she tumbled to the ground like a sack of seaweed-

_My tribe… Gran -Gran, Father… _

Her vision went dark as the forest floor rose up to meet her


	3. Healing

_Hidden Place_

**Chapter 3**

_The pot of stew was quietly bubbling over a jolly little fire. Toph and Aang were practicing the finer details of earthbending not 10 metres from her, twisting one of her best metal pans into various, deadly shapes._

'_Check this out!' Aang stated proudly, brandishing his newly formed metal drum, rounded on the bottom and emitting long, hollow notes._

_Deadly shapes, indeed. But Aang's tough master let her persona slip when she emitted an uncharacteristic giggle. Sokka, wading through a gentle stream nearby, had caught on quickly and picked up two wet sticks, slapping them together._

_The two boys smiled at each other and found a beat together. _

_Smiling widely, Katara skipped over to them, smacking her wooden spoon against an empty clay pot- and Toph began to sing a cheery Earth kingdom song._

'Sir… the girl, she's… smiling?'

'She is waking again, alert the General'

'_I've got my feet on the ground but my head in the mountains_

_And when I go to sleep, I go to dream'_

_Sokka splashed out the stream to join his sister, his arms reaching, chasing her with his soggy sticks, Aang blew a gust of wind out at him, knocking him into Appa's downy tail._

_The group laughed heartily- Katara's heart was so full she thought her smile would split her face in half…_

_But then, the sunlight dabbling through the trees became the glow of the lamplight-_

'Thank you, Doctor Zhing, how is her fever?'

'It's broken, but she remains dazed, General Iroh.'

_And the clearing by the stream became a deep red tent; the sounds of her family's voices grew dimmer-_

'Child… waterbender- can you hear me?'

'Uncle! Zhing told me-'

She cracked open an eye, her heart became instantly heavy, knowing it had been a dream, as it had been for the last 3 months.

'Waterbender- it must have been a very pleasant dream'

She was still smiling. Her face dropped. And she knew exactly where she was.

And then she knew exactly why she was there- she shot up in her cot, throwing a heavy set of blankets off her body, struggled her legs to the side- hands were pushing her back-

'Calm, child. Lie back- you had quite a fall, back there. Zuko, don't just stand there, would you make yourself useful?'

A cool cloth pressed against her forehead- was she feverish? There was a sting- it was a gash! And then she forgot herself, she turned into a sharp glare, it was Sokka's boomerang! Sokka was cutting up bandages?

'Sokka!' she cried, flinging an arm toward him- he stumbled back, surprise on his features.

'Would somebody get some Tekkan root in this girl?' He barked

'Lay back, child- you can go back to that wonderful dream you were having' came the gentler voice.

'I don't-' she began, as a damp, strong smelling cloth was placed over her nose and mouth, but she quickly forgot what she didn't do as she fell into blackness again.

xxxxxxx

'What _was _that?' demanded a confused Zuko, stomping out of the medic tent towards his uncle, kneeling serenely by the soldier's fire. Iroh glanced up at him before taking another sip of his evening tea.

'That was the reason we're not moving forward until she wakes up without confusing one of us with her family or her giant flying bison.'

Zuko threw himself down beside his uncle, pinching the bridge of his nose.

'Can someone please explain to me _why _we're putting so much effort into this girl? As if she wasn't enough trouble 3 years ago, we need to keep moving-'

'Remember Zuko- one moment of patience may ward off -'

'Uncle, this is no time for proverbs! Azula has us on a very important mission, and this girl is acting as nothing but dead weight! We don't even know if that crackpot oracle meant this _specific _waterbender-'

'Zuko,' his uncle cut in, a shadow of regret in his eyes, 'how many other waterbenders are there?'

xxxxxxxx

The next time Katara woke, it was to much less fanfare. It was dark, it was quiet, and – she placed a clammy hand on her forehead- she wasn't as feverish.

She winced as her fingers tenderly brushed against a long scab on the side of her forehead- she desperately needed to do something about that gash. It was properly closed, she knew that much, but her head was pounding unbearably. She lifted herself on her elbows, her eyes searching the tent- she was alone. They had left no water with her.

Pushing herself into a seated position, Katara sucked in a sharp breath- her side was on fire! It must have been her rib, confirming the tightness in her chest as she noted another set of wrappings just below her chest bindings.

She placed her shaky feet on the ground, testing her weight before struggling to a tent pole, swaying. A low, grumbly yawn resonated through the tent.

'Lie down, you backwater bumpkin. You need to sleep that shake off. Go back to your dreams.'

Katara whipped her head to a dark corner. She could see the bottoms of fire soldier boots from the shadow, sticking out lazily in a chair. She thought of Toph and her song, the one she sang on one of the last few perfect days they'd had together.

Her entire world was inverted, it would never be like that day, like that song.

'I don't go to sleep to dream' she responded, so quietly it might have been to herself, before walking determinedly out of the tent flap.

Zuko stared at the spot she had just vacated for half a minute before the flap was ripped back by an irate Doctor Zhing. Though young, his passion for his patients was a sight to be feared.

'_Why, _exactly, is my patient wobbling across the camp and not being watched by a sluggish prince?'

Zuko threw his arms into air and clomped out to the camp, to see he wasn't the only absent-minded soldier around, as everyone who was awake at the moment were watching with a torrid fascination as the weak waterbender tore at her chest bindings, trudging her feet towards the nearby river. Two soldiers on night watch leapt aside as she staggered between them, gaping as fish out of water, their duty completely forgotten.

Strips falling down her side, her bindings had now lost nearly all decency they might have served when it was Iroh scurrying to treat the unconscious girl, who quite literally fell from the sky. When she had fallen, unconscious and injured, the attention Zuko felt obligated to provide the girl was quite literally because she seemed so obviously childish and alone.

Both uncle and nephew had recognized the girl immediately. She had been the same small, foreign, almost mousy girl they had not seen for- how long had it been? Years. Zuko had forgotten in those 3 days watching over her health underneath layers of thick woollen blankets that years had passed, that she matured, as he had.

Zuko had been annoyed and confused 3 days ago, but the half-naked girl who fell from the sky was not the same half-naked girl walking unabashedly into the river, uncaring of its temperature. Her back seemed longer, the curve of her hips more pronounced, and though her chest was still covered by the modest strip she had likely forgotten to remove, it did little to hide the swell that Zuko was certain had popped up overnight.

His throat constricted. He slapped a hand to his temple, surprised to find it damp, and hot.

'Oh, this is just ridiculous' he muttered, shaking himself from his hormonal reaction. 'You!' he barked at a gaping soldier, 'Would you please throw a cloak over that-' -he chose his words carefully, '… citizen.'

'Sir…' began the soldier, his eyes glued to the waterbender's back, which was now twisting delicately as her arms moved in learned patterns over the water, 'I think she's a little busy right now?'

Her hands glowing a mesmerizing blue, Zuko allowed himself a glance at her profile as she peered down at her side, her brow knitting in a concentrated frown as she pushed down on her injured rib- of course.

'She's healing… I think' commented Doctor Zhing, admiration written on his face. 'What a gift…'

'Well when she's done with that could someone arrange himself into a gentleman and cover her up!'

He spun on his heel, and marched directly into his uncle, watching the girl with sad eyes.

'Thank Agni the royal messengers are no longer here.' He stared up at his nephew, his expression set.

'We need to ensure the trustworthiness of the crew.' Iroh said, scanning the faces of the gawking soldiers, some of whom were turning their heads to whisper amongst each other. 'If what the oracle says is true, if Azula's damage is true-'

Zuko turned his head; Zhing was up to his knees in the river, gently laying his cloak over her body as she healed her forehead.

'The secrecy of her identity is not an option.'


End file.
